When he went to school, the teacher asked him: "Which province is west of Zhili Province?" He answered Shaanxi. The teacher said: "Wrong, it is Shanxi, not Shaanxi." He said: "Would Shaanxi and Shanxi not be close enough?"

This is a term of respect, reserved only for speaking about others, and considered somewhat impolite (immodest) to use when referring to oneself. Instead, the term 教師(kyōshi, “teacher”, literally “teaching + teacher”) is considered more socially appropriate when referring to oneself.

This is an example of a word that can be spelled with katakana to convey an informal conversational tone, as センセー.